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After Sandy Knocks Out Power, Rescue Keeps Data Center Alive

In a lower Manhattan building evacuated during Hurricane Sandy, more than a dozen people on Wednesday carried 5-gallon buckets filled with diesel fuel up 17 flights of stairs. Each of them carried two buckets — one in each arm — up two flights of stairs, then handed them off to the next person. The stairwell was pitch dark, slippery and reeked of diesel.

The diesel was powering a backup generator on the roof that fueled a data center run by Peer 1 Hosting. Inside, rows and rows of Peer 1’s servers provide the computing power for about 100 companies like Squarespace, a Web publishing software business, and Fog Creek Software, a company that develops tools for the software industry. Those companies rely on Peer 1’s data center to enable thousands of customers around the world to run their websites.